A Pep Rally for Liberalism

Don’t get me wrong: I like watching The Daily Show. Jon Stewart is a funny guy, and his team of writers and fellow cast members is one of the best in comedy. But the mainstream media’s declaration that the interview Stewart recently did with the president asked the “tough” questions was less comedy and more tragedy.

After watching the interview, I can say that Stewart didn’t so much put the president in tough positions as slightly awkward ones. Stewart didn’t ask the president why he was turning America into the next socialist state; instead he asked him—essentially—why he wasn’t doing it faster.

The most outrageous claim made by the president was that Obamacare would cut the deficit by $1 trillion (See this in clip 2 at 3:48). That’s a figure that the president has been throwing around, and it should be challenged. The figures the president is using cover two decades. In other words, he’s bragging about cutting a trillion dollars off the deficit over 20 years, after he more than tripled the deficit in 2009, pushing it to $1.413 trillion! In 20 years the president’s policy will cut the deficit roughly as much as he added to it in his first year.

This wasn’t tough questioning. This was a Barack Obama infomercial. It was a pep rally for liberalism. The crowd sounded like the Democratic side of the aisle at the State of the Union address. Stewart referred to the president of the United States as “dude.” This was friendly territory.

But the interview was just a prelude for a much larger liberal pep rally, tomorrow on the National Mall. While Stewart’s rally was initially branded as the “Million Moderate March,” it seems to be anything but. During the interview, Stewart was clearly speaking for the dissatisfied liberal left. Why hadn’t Obama achieved more “change”? Where was the goddamn change?

The rally also seems to have attracted others from the dissatisfied left wing. The L.A. Times reports that Arianna Huffington (of TheHuffington Post) will be bussing in 11,000 disaffected liberals from up and down the eastern seaboard. Expect arugula shortages in grocery stores across the capital.

Meeting them at the rally will be a tribe of hippie stoners who have come for the music festival. From what is known about the rally, it will be the “Woodstock of liberalism.” Presumably this time they mean it. The Wall Street Journalreports that the concert will be headlined by the Roots, Jeff Tweedy, and Sheryl Crow. This sounds like a fun afternoon, not a serious political protest.

So the question is, will the rally be a music festival or liberal turning point in America? Could it be both? Who knows? I’m sure it will be funny, but don’t expect a million moderates to show up.

Americans aren’t looking for this kind of moderation. Americans want their country back. The liberal left has been rejected (by my count) three times since its current form came into being in the 1960s. The first time was the first election of Ronald Reagan. The second was the Republican wave of 1994, and the third was the first election of George W. Bush (though admittedly that turned out badly). Tuesday’s election will be the fourth time the ’60s liberal movement has been struck down by the silent majority. Let’s hope this time it stays down.